JEALOUSY, ENVY, COVETOUSNESS

Definitions

Covetousness: painfully desirous of another's advantages, possessions, looks, or qualities; "jealous of his success and covetous of his possessions"; "envious of their art collection"

Envy: A feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the possessions or qualities of another.

Jealousy: A feeling of grudging admiration and desire to have something that is possessed by another.

KRISHNAMURTI ON JEALOUSY

"Thought inevitably breeds the feeling of ownership, that possessiveness which consciously or unconsciously cultivates jealousy. Where jealousy is, obviously love is not; and yet with most people, jealousy is taken as an indication of love. Jealousy is the result of thought, it is a response of the emotional content of thought. When the feeling of possessing or being possessed is blocked, there is such emptiness that envy takes the place of love. It is because thought plays the role of love that all the complications and sorrows arise." - Jiddu Krishnamurti

DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF NEGATIVELY WITH OTHERS

We cannot be another person so there is no sense in harbouring jealousy, envy, or covetousness, nor anger, hatred, or violence towards another person.

Realising that the only person that will truly be hurt by these afflictions is me, I can resolve to like and look after myself, working on my own self-development, strengthening my weaknesses, overcoming my problems and creating a holistically healthy and happy life for myself and my loved ones, so that I will never need to feel jealousy or envy ever again, and I can show others how to overcome it also.

If others have a greater power
of activity and are able to do and achieve far more than us, then we may feel
resentment towards them and self loathing towards ourselves because we feel
inadequate when compared to others. This is the emotion of jealousy.

It is not so much that we
desire that which others have but we feel negative towards their abilities and
negative towards our apparent lack when we compare ourselves with others.

Jealousy is here taken to be the same
as envy. It is defined to be a sorrow which one entertains at
another's well-being because of a view that one's own excellence is in
consequence lessened. Its distinctive malice comes from the opposition it
implies to the supreme virtue of charity. The law of love constrains us to
rejoice rather than to be distressed at the good fortune of our neighbour.
Besides, such an attitude is a direct contradiction of the spirit of solidarity
which ought to characterize the human race.

The envious man tortures
himself without cause, morbidly holding as he does, the success of another to
constitute an evil for himself. The sin, in so far as it defies the great
precept of charity, is in general grievous, although on account of the trifling
matter involved, as well as because of the lack of deliberation, it is often
reputed to be venial. Jealousy is most evil when one repines at another's
humanitarian good.

COVETOUSNESS: Wanting that
which others have

Do not covet thy neighbors
goods.

Yearning for that which is not ours or is not realistic
at the current moment in our lives, comparing our own achievements with other's,
or setting our aims beyond our means can only really produce negative outcomes
for ourselves and in our relationships with others.

If we fall prey to covetousness
then we will waste our time and energy in unnecessary and painful pursuits. We
will become highly competitive as
we strive to better our neighbour. We may turn to criminal activity to get that
wish our envious and greedy mind has
set itself upon.